Dictionary.com Thesaurus.com

plug and feathers

American

noun

an apparatus for splitting stone, consisting of two tapered bars feathers, inserted into a hole drilled into the stone, between which a narrow wedge plug is hammered to spread them.

Etymology

Origin of plug and feathers

First recorded in 1835–45

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.